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Sandy Samson

Genres

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Thrillers

Sandy Samson

Sandy Samson (the pen name of Timothy Masters) has published several dozen short stories in assorted online and print journals. These stories include science fiction, fantasy, and humorous romance. He also co-wrote the fantasy romance "Demon's Redemption" with Anastasia Rabiyah. "Red Dust and Bones" is his first full-length novel, and a second science fiction novel is in final edits.

In Samson’s sci-fi thriller (Demon’s Redemption, 2009), a crew sent on a rescue mission to Mars battles what might be a flesh-eating alien life form, sabotage and a murderer aboard their ship.

Col. John Hellman leads the Planetary Exploration Command on its way to the red planet to learn what became of the last six-person crew. On Mars, the members discover skeletal remains and crystal rods like the ones brought back from an earlier mission, which are now being examined on Earth by John’s wife, Marie, director of PEC’s Extra-TerrestrialBiology division. Believing the rods may be responsible for the piles of bones, John fears for Marie’s safety, but first, he must contend with someone sending encrypted messages to his crew and their being attacked. Though sci-fi, the novel concentrates mostly on the mystery behind murders occurring on both Earth and Mars. Suspense deftly builds from the start, when John’s friend Tom tells him PECspeculates that an infection killed the missing crew—which would explain why a doctor, Sarah Carpenter, has been appointed the mission’s commander. Also, rather than the crew calmly waking up from stasis on Mars, tension is further established by someone having a heart attackafter hypersleep and the area being scanned for signs of life before anyone even steps foot on the planet. Survivors of the previous mission tell of the crew’s demise—possibly related to aliens—but the tensest moments take place after one of John’s crew is bludgeoned to deathand another has his throatslashed. Distrust boils among the crew while accusations and theories abound; as psychologist Cynthia proclaims, “[T]rust is always a gamble.” Back on Earth, Marie can’t escape the paranoia. PEC believes she’s in cahoots with a saboteur among John’s crew, and when a trusted colleague dies, she blames her employers. Although the couple’s interplanetary stories receive equal coverage, John’s account is the more exhilarating of the two, especially for its Mars locale. Samson’s novel includes subtle, wry nods to other sci-fi works—the mission has shades of both Alien and Aliens—and Star Trek fans will appreciate a familiar refrain, with variations voiced by more than one character: “I’m a scientist, not a politician.”

Shines brightest as a thriller but basks gloriously in its dusty, red-planet ambiance.

ADDITIONAL WORKS AVAILABLE:

DEMON'S REDEMPTION

Fantasy romance

Mary and Sam, whose paths parted years before, are thrown into a hilarious mix-up when an overly zealous demon decides to play the role of an angel. Malarak breaks the rules of Heaven and Hell in an attempt to reunite the two lovers he thinks belong together. It sounds noble, but it's mostly a ploy to impress Beliana, the angel who holds the demon's dark heart. Can a demon do an angel's job and fix the wrongs in these two lovers' past, or will everything fall apart like it always does when Malarak tries to do something good? From the minds of fantasy authors Sandy Samson and Anastasia Rabiyah, Demon's Redemption is a tangled-up tale of true love and acceptance riddled with laughter.

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